Saturday, November 26, 2011

Red lipstick is perhaps one of the sexiest looks you can create. Monroe was famous for the look, along with more current celebrities such as Gwen Stefani and Angelina Jolie. Truth is, you don't need to be famous to wear red, YES, it's scary and bold and can take some getting used to, but red is a color that looks great on everyone as long as you pick the right tone! Tone is very important in picking a red, of course you can go for the fire engine classic red color, OR you can look at tones and see what goes best with your complexion. The other important thing to remember when considering a red lip is that you don't want to wear too much additional makeup. Usually a black liner is all that is needed to complete the classic look. Some people are more bold and attempt a light smokey eye, but it really will need some experimenting! This is the look I created using two red lipstick colors and a simple black liquid liner :

On my lips I used two Wet n' Wild colors : #928 Fierce Wild Shine Lip Lacquer and #514 Cherry Frost Silk Finish Lipstick. I used a Revlon liquid liner pen to create a thin line above my upper lash line. In order to keep the lipstick from bleeding you should dab a pit of translucent powder on top. The lip colors were between .99 and $2.99 and look and feel great! Let me know if you have any questions!

Friday, November 25, 2011

These are my three favorite things when it comes to "at home" makeup! Adding shadow makes any normal liner pop a bit more, and that is exactly what I did today! After a long Turkey Day I decided that today's makeup routine was going to be cut in half so that I could immediately start lounging around my house, this is the final product after about three minutes using three products :

Step 1: Create a line across the lid using NYX Jumbo Pencil in Milk. Milk is a rich white cream pencil that will act as a great base for additional color.

Step 2: Pick your colors! I like Bright so I went with Dollipop ( bright pink) by Sugarpill and added Afterparty ( bright blue) by Sugarpill to create a purple color.

Step 3: Apply your colors on top of the white color! I wanted to create a fading look, so I did hot pink into Purple. You may just want one vibrant color, or a rainbow but no matter what you decide you will pack each color onto the white with a small stiff brush. Ta-Da!! Bright, fun and quick!

Monday, November 21, 2011

I've seen a lot of people use Coastal Scents but it's not really a product that you hear mentioned with MAC or Urban Decay or the like. Coastal Scents is known best for their 88 Original Palette featuring a rainbow of colors. After seeing this featured in a ton of other blog and all over MakeupBee I decided I needed to see what all the hype was about! I went to the site and learned that the are having a 40% off sale from now until the 24th. I spent about $30 on two palettes and a translucent powder so right off the bat I was a very happy shopper! The two palettes I chose were the "Fall Festival" and "Smokey Eye" both of which feature extremely pigmented beautiful colors!

SMOKEY EYE

The Smokey Eye palette has six different color groups to pick from ranging from neutral to neon colors so you can create a look for every occasion! The colors are very highly pigmented and shimmery, which I always love as a combo. Even the lighter colors that don't swatch very well stay on great and show up a lot better with a primer! This palette will without a doubt be getting a lot of use from me!

FALL FESTIVE

This Palette has colors that are a lot larger than the smokey eye palette, this is because the Fall Festive palette is part of the Hot Pot Palette collection. Each color can be repurchased and replaced if you run out of it. Often times the base color is used up before the crease or highlight color, so the ease of replacement option is great! I'm loving this as well and all the colors I have purchased are rich and even though I haven't used each of them yet but I can tell they will hold perfectly with any primer!

The powder I mentioned before has worked pretty well. I've only used it a few times and mainly it's used because I have gross oily skin, the powder just sucks it all up without applying color which I love! Nothing bad to say about it so far, but if something comes up I'll let ya know!

There is still a few more days left on the sale and honestly, I might make another purchase. After all the researching I did on them it seems like 40% off is one of the best sales they have all year!

Application pictures to come later on this week during my four day weekenddddddd!!

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

I have heard so much about Sultra and decided it was time to give them a shot! A friend recommended searching on ebay and I ended up getting my dryer, barely used, in the original box and all for over $150 off -Happy Birthday to ME!!

I've had it for two days and have only used it a few times. Its a bit heavier than my last dryer and
has a few more buttons where your hand naturally falls. The first time I
used it I put product in my hair and combed it through with my fingers,
when I picked up the dryer my hands slid down over top the buttons,
turning the dryer on a higher heat/ pushing down the cold burst button,
kind of annoying. The second time I made sure to dry my hands completely
before drying and my fingers didn't slide nearly as much. It's only a
bit heavier than my old Bed Head drier, but hopefully that will lead to
some sweet guns in the future :). I also noticed that my hair is a lot
silkier, full of volume and even shinier. Also my dry time was cut in
half!! Overall I'm loving it so far,its been 12 hours since I dried my hair and the volume this baby gives is just awesome!! Usually after drying and straightening my hair it falls flat by the end of the day and the amount of product weighs it down... not today my friend! I would recommend it to anyone looking for a new dryer, a good investment and you know you won't have to buy another for a very very long time because of the high quality!

Monday, November 14, 2011

Ever have one of those days where you just need to get out of the office? Well that was me today! I woke up after tossing and turning all night on our futon (we passed out in the living room pretty late due to a new T.V. and Netflix streaming) and I woke up in a funk. It was clear I needed a mid-day pick me up sooo of course I decided I needed to run out and shop! The Harbor Mall is about 4 minutes from my office so I knew that I could pick up a few things, or even window shop on my 1 hour break.

Tea tree oil has been something I've been wanting to try so I decided to stop by the Body Shop and pick some up....along with a few unexpected other things...

Tea tree stuff was Buy 2 get 1 free so I got two bottles of oil and one concealer stick with tea tree oil in it... GENIUS! They were having a huge sale and I also got a shimmer square for $1 which I can't wait to use under my brow bones/ cheeks/ nose. Plus I got a regular primer for $5 on sale and 05 Sage eyeshadow. My total bill was about $24.00!! Not a bad haul, 6 great products for $24. Get to Body Shop ASAP if you love any of the products they offer, the sale is sweet! Don't worry, I also managed to make it into Victoria's Secret for the 7 undies for $26 sale (usually 5 undies for $25) AND to Bath and Body Works to get my favorite winter time lip gloss by C.O. Bigelow.

Oh also pictured above is my new business card that I received today! I'm hoping to post them at local coffee shops/ community boards in case anyone is interested in being featured in the blog for a makeover or wants me to do their makeup for a special event!

Sunday, November 13, 2011

On my Birthday I went to Frederick to see my family and my little sister let me do a before and after makeover! Shes a teenager and we all know how much of a pain skin can be when your that age. She's not too big into makeup, she puts on foundation and mascara and sometimes lipstick but that's about it, but shes gorgeous anyway so she doesn't need to get all fancy every day! My goal was to clear up her blemishes and do a look that expressed the fun outgoing girl that she is. I think a lot of times we stay neutral and "easy" because mascara and powder go with every outfit, but I think it's a lot more fun when you can create a look that is as edgy and funky as you are. Since she isn't used to wearing a lot of makeup I was still able to create a fun look using my favorite wet n' wild palette "comfort zone" and little else.

BEFORE

Here are the steps of what I did :

1. Apply lotion all over the face, this helps prep your skin for the layers you will be applying!
2. Apply Urban Decay Primer Potion to the lids.
3. Apply concealer to all red blemishes, I used Laura Mercier.
4. Apply the green color from the Comfort Zone Palette to the lids
5. Apply the greenish black from the Comfort Zone Palette to the crease, blend well in a downwards circle.
6. Apply the lightest brow bone color from the Comfort Zone Palette
7. Apply L'Oreal double Extend Beauty tubes mascara
8. Apply liner to the lower lids, I used black

* This is where the eyes are finished, so any fall out from packing on eye shadow is probably sitting on your cheek bones/ face. Brush your face off with your hands, avoiding the eyes. This helps when applying foundation *

9. Using your fingers or a sponge apply foundation to entire face, making sure to blend the previously concealed areas together with the foundation.
10. Go over your face with powder, I used NW15 by MAC on her because I wanted to make sure the redness of her blemishes were masked. If you aren't worried about toning color down, translucent powders work very well, I recommend the one by No.7 which can be found at Target.
11. Apply bronzer in a diagonal line from the corner of your mouth to your ears, blend well.
12. Apply a light blush to the apples of your cheeks, I used Popsie by FLIRT!

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

My Birthday is tomorrow :) and I'm hoping my boyfriend has decided he will get me all the neat things I've been hinting towards ( and by hinting I mean emailing to him ) hahaha. Hopefully between tomorrow and next week I will be able to review some more of Sugarpills Matte & Chromalust colors, St. Tropez bronzer, Urban Decay cream colors- bronzers-primers, Sultra Sophisticate blow drier, and maybe a few more if I get lucky!

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Previously I reviewed Wet n' Wild's Comfort Zone Palette, which was a very pleasant surprise of vibrant pigmented colors! I shared a Kim Kardashian smokey eye look that I created with mostly the darker side of the palette so today I wanted to show you a look I created with the opposite side of the palette. I used Urban Decays Primer Potion to hold the color, this stuff is amazing. It makes the most inexpensive low quality colors look like a million bucks and holds the color for over 8 hours. If you don't have it I suggest you try it, you won't be disappointed and it will make your daily beauty routine so much easier.

The picture above was taken after my day out! Primer potion is no joke, and it kept my $4.99 Wet n' Wild colors fun, fresh and in place. I finished off the shadow with black liquid Stiletto liner and L'Oreal double extend beauty tube mascara! Enjoy!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Being the budget savvy gal that I am, and after reading many many reviews of Clarisonic and Dermanew products I decided to just try out Dermanew's Acne & Oil Clarifying System. Kandee Johnson recommends this product and shes got killer skin so I figured I'd give it a whirl before I made the $200+ investment in a Clarisonic. I ordered it from Beautychoice.com which Kandee recommends ordering from.

I HATE WWW.BEAUTYCHOICE.COM : FOR PRODUCT REVIEW SKIP THIS PARAGRAPH,

IF YOU ARE THINKING OF ORDERING FROM THEM

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU READ THIS!

FOLKS... I am NOT kidding you when I say that I waited over a MONTH to get this bad boy. Quite frankly Beautychoice.com sucks. I will never ever everever order another thing from that site again. I ordered the system which was $60 on sale and paid $11 to have two day express shipping totaling $71.00. I ordered the product on Thursday and by the next Wednesday I still had no tracking number and decided to call the customer service number. I talked to a rude lady who told me that the product is listed as "out of stock" on the site, which it was not, and then told me she didn't know when she'd get it back in so I'd have to "deal with it". This then prompted me to do a little research on good ol' beautychoice.com which turned up all sorts of customer complaints: people who had received used products, people who had been waiting for months for their product, people who waited for over a month and were sent the WRONG product and then had to wait again, etc. This screamed NIGHTMARE to me and I decided to email in and tell them about my experience with the rude lady on the phone. They didn't seem too apologetic but did tell me they would refund me for the shipping, since I asked to be reimbursed since I wasn't getting anything within the two days that I paid for. Otherwise I don't think they would have offered to pay me back. It has been a month and four days and I received my package yesterday. It came with a "free gift" which was a large 16 oz bottle of Dermanew Facial Cleanser which was opened and leaking all over, luckily they had the common sense to put a plastic baggy over the spout in case it did burst open. The Dermanew product was perfectly fine though which is all I really cared about!

REVIEW!!

Dermanew Acne & Oil Clarifying System

The package comes with a bullet shaped vibrating piece ( don't even go there hahaha) that you can attach two separate scrubbers to, one has bristles and the other looks like a smooth sponge. The power button controls the vibrating and will vibrate for two minutes if you press it once, and will continue vibrating for however long you'd like if you press it twice. The intense vibrations allow for soaps and scrubs to be scrubbed into the pores giving them a great deep cleaning. The microdermebrasion cream that comes with the package is a very rough texture, you place a dot on both cheeks, on your forehead, on your chin and on your nose and then scrub in an upward circular motion, then rinse.

Aftewards my skin felt a little better and I could certainly see where I had pimples forming, but it wasn't really as AH-MAZING as I thought. This morning I woke up and felt my face and it felt awesomeeeee!! This was what I was hoping for! I used it again this morning in the shower and my skin is smooth and glowing. I live in Maryland so the weather is getting a little colder, causing my skin to be a little drier. This product smooths the dead/ dry skin right off and allowed me to apply flawless foundation this morning!

Since I've only used it for one day I can't say for sure if the product makes me breakout or if it really works, but I will say that I'm pleased with my results thus far. I'll keep you updated as I continue to use it!

About Me

I'm big on beauty. I love to try new products which also means I love to shop. I reside in Baltimore with my boyfriend and what's turning into a mini farm (dogs, cats, chickens)! - life.is.good.
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